hieratic
/ˌhaɪ(ə)ˈɹætɪk/
hieratic adjective: of or pertaining to priests or other religious authorities, especially pharaonic priests of Ancient Egypt.
Adjective
hieratic (not comparable)
- Of or pertaining to priests or other religious authorities, especially pharaonic priests of Ancient Egypt.
- In sculpture and in the drama, in Aristophanic farce and in hieratic rituals, in pictorial art and in the stream of literature, the phallus is transcendent.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page iii
- The witch, repository of hieratic lore and folk legends and occult arcana, became the distributor of philtres and unguents, electuaries and pastilles, herbs and charms and incantations - directed toward sexual pleasures and amatory satisfactions.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 223
- Synonyms:
- sacerdotal, priestly
- Of or pertaining to the cursive writing system that developed alongside the hieroglyphic system as its ordinary handwritten counterpart.
- The papyrus was written in hieratic, a cursive form of hieroglyphics.2021, Claire Cock-Starkey, Hyphens & Hashtags, Bodleian Library, page 117
- Extremely stylized, restrained or formal; adhering to fixed types or methods; severe in emotional import.
- Some of the more hieratic sculptures leave the viewer curiously unmoved.
- When Christ was being crucified, so ran the sea-borne, hieratic legend, the earth had opened all through this country, though the coincidence could hardly have impressed anyone then!1947, Malcolm Lowry, chapter 1, in Under the Volcano, New York: Reynal & Hitchcock
Noun
hieratic (plural hieratics)
- A writing system used in pharaonic Egypt that was developed alongside the hieroglyphic system, primarily written in ink with a reed brush on papyrus, allowing scribes to write quickly without resorting to the time consuming hieroglyphs.
hieratic meaning in Tamil
hieratic in Tamil
- சமய குருமாருக்குரிய, சமய குருவால் வழங்கப்பட்ட, மத குருவுடைய, பண்டைய எகிப்தில் ஹீரோக்லிஃபிக்ஸ் போன்ற, ஆனால் இன்னும் எளிமையான வடிவெழுத்து
Synonyms of hieratic
Forms of hieratic
| plural | hieratics |
|---|
Origin of hieratic
From Latin hieraticus, from Ancient Greek ἱερατικός (hieratikós), from ἱερατεία (hierateía, “priesthood”), from ἱερατεύω (hierateúō, “be a priest”), from ἱερεύς (hiereús, “priest”), from ἱερός (hierós, “sacred”). Use pertaining to the Egyptian writing system originates with the Greek phrase γράμματα ἱερατικά (grámmata hieratiká, literally “priestly writing”), which was first used by Saint Clement of Alexandria in the 2nd century AD, as at that time hieratic was used only for religious texts, as had been the case for the previous thousand years.
Words formed from hieratic
Questions about hieratic
- What does hieratic mean?
- Hieratic means of or pertaining to priests or other religious authorities, especially pharaonic priests of Ancient Egypt.
- What is hieratic in Tamil?
- Hieratic in Tamil is சமய குருமாருக்குரிய, சமய குருவால் வழங்கப்பட்ட, மத குருவுடைய. See Hieratic meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is hieratic?
- Hieratic can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce hieratic?
- Hieratic is pronounced /ˌhaɪ(ə)ˈɹætɪk/.
Words near hieratic in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hieratic (page history and authors); hieratic (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-hieratic.wav.
Cite this entry: “hieratic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hieratic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.